Open-Access-Bücher zu den Sprachen & Kulturen Afrikas, Asiens und Ozeaniens

In der let­zten Zeit sind u.a. diese frei ver­füg­baren Titel erschienen:

Current research in Semitic Studies: proceedings of the Semitic studies section at the 34th DOT at Freie Universität Berlin

Olivieri, Simona & Talay, Shabo (eds.)
https://www.doi.org/10.13173/9783447121729

This vol­ume con­tains 22 select­ed papers in Eng­lish and Ger­man, first pre­sent­ed at the 34th Deutsch­er Ori­en­tal­is­tentag (DOT, www.dot2022.de) of the Deutsche Mor­gen­ländis­che Gesellschaft at Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin from Sep­tem­ber 12 to 17, 2022 in the Semit­ic Stud­ies Sec­tion. The DOT has been orga­nized since 1921; the 34th edi­tion in Sep­tem­ber 2022 cel­e­brat­ed its 100th anniver­sary. Due to its inter­na­tion­al scope, the DOT is one of the most impor­tant aca­d­e­m­ic con­fer­ences world­wide.

In 2022, about 1200 pre­sen­ta­tions, spread across 23 sec­tions, offered insights into var­i­ous dis­ci­plines and areas of region­al and cul­tur­al stud­ies. The Semit­ic Stud­ies Sec­tion of the DOT fea­tured over six­ty con­tri­bu­tions, the abstracts of which can be accessed via the DOT web­site.

The con­tri­bu­tions in this vol­ume pro­vide an overview of cur­rent research in the field of Semit­ic stud­ies and present the diverse approach­es and the broad spec­trum of top­ics dis­cussed at the con­fer­ence.

The 22 papers are divid­ed into three the­mat­ic chap­ters. Chap­ter A con­tains con­tri­bu­tions on gen­er­al and com­par­a­tive Semit­ics and presents research on sev­er­al Semit­ic lan­guages aside from Ara­bic. Chap­ter B com­pris­es papers cov­er­ing Ara­bic lin­guis­tics and dialec­tol­ogy, and chap­ter C con­sists of four con­tri­bu­tions from a con­fer­ence pan­el on the top­ic of recita­tion prac­tices of sacred texts.

Reimagining the Globe and Cultural Exchange: The East Asian Legacies of Matteo Ricci’s World Map

Lau­ra Hostetler
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004684782

How did Asia come to be rep­re­sent­ed on Euro­pean World maps? When and how did Asian Coun­tries adopt a con­ti­nen­tal sys­tem for under­stand­ing the world? How did coun­tries with dis­parate map­ping tra­di­tions come to share a basic under­stand­ing and vision of the globe?
This series of essays orga­nized into sec­tions on Jesuit Cir­cuits of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Pub­li­ca­tion; Jesuit World Maps in Chi­nese; Rever­ber­a­tions of Mat­teo Ricci’s Maps in East Asia; and Reflec­tions on the Cura­tion of Car­to­graph­ic Knowl­edge, go a long way toward answer­ing these ques­tions about the shap­ing of our mod­ern under­stand­ings of the world.

Ways of Seeking: The Arabic Novel and the Poetics of Investigation

Emi­ly Drum­s­ta
https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.178

In Ways of Seek­ing, Emi­ly Drum­s­ta traces the influ­ence of detec­tive fic­tion on the twen­ti­eth-cen­tu­ry Ara­bic nov­el. The­o­riz­ing a “poet­ics of inves­ti­ga­tion,” she shows how these nov­els, far from stag­ing awe-inspir­ing feats of log­i­cal deduc­tion, mock the truth-seek­ing prac­tices on which mod­ern exer­cis­es of colo­nial and nation­al pow­er are often premised. Their nar­ra­tives return to the archives of Ara­bic folk­lore, Islam­ic piety, and mys­ti­cism to explore less coer­cive ways of know­ing, see­ing, and seek­ing. Drum­s­ta argues that schol­ars of the Mid­dle East neglect the lit­er­ary at their per­il, over­look­ing key cri­tiques of colo­nial­ism from the intel­lec­tu­als who shaped and respond­ed through fic­tion to the trans­for­ma­tions of moder­ni­ty. This book ulti­mate­ly tells a dif­fer­ent sto­ry about the novel’s place in the con­stel­la­tion of Arab mod­ernism, mod­el­ing an inno­v­a­tive method of open-end­ed inquiry based on the lit­er­ary texts them­selves.